Testimonial

Embracing a bright future Growing up in a broken family and dealing with depression, anxiety and abuse from various sources, I found solace in drugs and the lifestyle that came with it, including sex and partying. It wasn’t until I reached the age of 28 that I finally became sober and began to realise the…

For the first time in 20 years, my family relationships are repairing. This is all thanks to God and the Living Free program.

Patiently waiting on God I was born into a middle-class family with a mother, father and sister. I went to a Catholic school and attended church on Sundays. I was timid at school and wasn’t really into sport. I always wanted connection and acceptance. I searched and tried many different social circles, trying to find…

A restored life I grew up in Canberra. I got diagnosed with autism at a young age and was always socially awkward as a kid. At about 13, I started struggling with mental illnesses like severe depression. I also moved from a public to a private school during this time, and at 15, my drug…

At Teen Challenge SA, our day starts how most functional households do. We live as a community, but our living quarters are made up of seven small houses, with up to four people in each, so before the day gets underway, it’s a normal morning run around of showers, breakfast and prayer. The first structured…

From death to life When I arrived at Teen Challenge South Australia, I was completely broken. I was homeless, living in a tent on the Murray River in the middle of winter, planning my suicide. Seventeen years of addiction had landed me in this situation. Planning my death was the only thing that would bring…

A bright and successful future I never thought I would ever do drugs, let alone get addicted to them. I grew up in a Christian home with good parents and a supportive family. I was always a keen sportsman – playing soccer every Saturday throughout my childhood and teenage years. I was constantly training and…

Prison or rehab I grew up in a poor household with my four other siblings, my father and my mother. My childhood was full of child abuse and hatred for each other. At the age of four, I was spending my days on the doorsteps of the pokies. There was never any food in the…

Fitter and stronger in Christ I am completing the Teen Challenge SA program for the second time here at Strathalbyn in 2022. The first time was in 2007 in Elizabeth, 15 years ago. When I completed the program for the first time, it was wonderful. I learnt much about myself and life, but it was…

Kingsley is the father of Oscar, one of the participants of our Living Free program. Together, they recently celebrated Oscar’s baptism, which Kingsley says was a dramatic change from the ‘toughest, roughest days of hell [they] endured over the previous decade’. I had the privilege of raising Oscar as a single father. Our family loved…